Complaints Handling Policy

1. We will record your complaint centrally and send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 5 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure (if not already supplied.)
2. Our Complaints Partner will then allocate a Designated Manager to investigate your complaint. This will usually involve reviewing your complaint, reviewing your file(s) and other relevant and related documents, and speak to the person(s) who dealt with your matter. We may also contact you for further details if necessary.We will update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times.
3. The Designated Manager will then send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including their suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for a Partner to review the decision.
5. The reviewing Partner will write to you within 14 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
6. If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (www.legalombudsman.org.uk.) within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within 1 year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within 1 year of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).

For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

Alternative complaints bodies exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our Practice wish to use such a service. We have, however, chosen not to adapt such an alternative dispute resolution process. Therefore, if you wish to complain further, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman.

7. We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
8. Please note that if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is not paid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding.
9. The Legal Ombudsman service is free of charge.
10. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour or conduct. This is to do with things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, disability or other characteristics. If you are a small business or consumer you can raise your concerns with the SRA directly via their website www.sra.org.uk.

Please note that our invoices are a final bill in relation to the period of time they describe and cover work already completed for you.  If you wish to dispute an invoice sent to you, it is important that you do so as soon as possible, and refer you to our Terms & Conditions. Invoices are payable immediately and enforceable after 30 days. We reserve the right to take enforcement action and/or apply interest on invoices that are not paid in full after 30 days. If you have any queries regarding items charged for on your invoices, please raise these with the Fee Earner with usual conduct of your matter in the first instance.

In order to avoid you incurring additional fees that might be beyond your capacity or willingness to pay, we reserve the right to suspend provision of legal services whilst enquiries are made into the level of your fees.

If your invoice relates to contentious work (ie: family matters), you may be entitled to have our charges reviewed by the Court by way of “detailed assessment”. There are deadlines applicable to assessment – you should apply to the Court for assessment within 1 month of the date of the invoice. If you apply after 1 month but within 12 months, the Court may order a detailed assessment but in doing so may also order that a sum of money is paid into Court to cover all or part of the invoice. There is detailed information at: https://www.gov.uk/challengesolicitors-bill. In some circumstances, the Court may determine that there should be no assessment. This may arise if you have paid the fees more than 12 months before you make an application for assessment, for example. You should also seek your own independent advice from a Legal Costs specialist as to the implications of failing to reduce the legal fees charged by a sufficient amount as there may still be Cost Order implications even if you are successful in having some of our charges assessed down.